Profile: After pitching as a starter for his entire career with the Cardinals, the Rockies made Ottavino a reliever and his strong fastball/slider combo led to a strikeout rate of over a batter per inning. Unfortunately, as long as he remains in the bullpen and calls Coors Field home, he shouldn't find his way onto your fantasy team. (Mike Podhorzer)

Profile: Last year began with some promise for Ottavino, and by the end of the season he had delivered on it. For the season, both his 2.64 ERA and 3.15 FIP were second-best among Rockies relievers. The next step in his progression will be performing consistently well in high-leverage situations. At 2013's outset, he was used in the middle innings, and often pitched for two or three innings at a time. Given his success, he was pushed into more late-game situations in August and September, and he responded well. From August until the end of the season, he tallied nine Shutdowns against just three Meltdowns. One look at his peripherals might raise some red flags. For instance, he tallied far fewer ground balls than he did in 2012, but that wasn't all bad news. Looking at his batted ball distance at baseballheatmaps.com, we find that Ottavino reduced his fly ball & home run distance from 296.21 ft. in 2012 to 274.46 ft. in 2013. In other words, Ottavino was generating a great deal of weak contact. Combine said week contact with a K rate over 20% and you have yourself a pretty nifty reliever.Ottavino did experience a pretty big drop in velocity from 2012 to 2013, so he's not a slam dunk, and he's certainly not first or second, and he's probably not even third on the Rockies bullpen depth chart. He might even be fifth, depending on a) Chad Bettis and b) if the Rockies sign someone like Jose Veras in free agency. Ottavino should pitch well, but depending on the Rockies' plans, it may not matter in fantasy baseball.

The Quick Opinion: Ottavino made good on the promise he showed during the 2012 season, and should continue to be effective in the Rockies' bullpen. The question will be what his role is, and whether or not it's an important enough role for him to obtain fantasy relevance.

Profile: Ottavino was better in 2014 than he was the year before, and took a step closer to being fantasy relevant someday -- but you might not know it from looking at his numbers. His ERA increased by almost a full run, he blew five saves, and he threw fewer innings. The ERA rising was the result of bad luck on balls in play and some regression in homers allowed. He blew five saves because he had a bizarrely terrible month of June despite dominating the rest of the year. And he threw fewer innings just because he was used more in more late inning, high leverage situations as opposed to being used for more than three outs earlier in games. Hopefully the Rockies continue to use him in those situations because it might lead to him being considered in the ninth inning at some point. The closer situation in Colorado is anything but certain, so it's possible Ottavino gets a shot at the job at some point in 2015. (Brett Talley)

The Quick Opinion: It would be no surprise if multiple pitchers get a shot at closing in Denver at some point in 2015. Ottavino is a dominant reliever who deserves a chance.

Profile: The results couldn't have been much better when Adam Ottavino was on the mound in 2015. He had over a 37% strikeout rate, he allowed zero runs and was nearly impossible to get a hit off of. Of course, that was in 10.1 innings pitched and then the very fickle ulnar collateral ligament decided it had had enough of this nonsense and poof -- season over. But Ottavino came into the season with a fair amount of buzz after posting a 3.60 ERA (3.10 FIP) over 65 innings pitched in 2014 in which he struck out 26% of would-be batters. It would make sense that he has an opportunity to close at some point in 2016, but that is very dependent on how he recovers from surgery, obviously. And now he will have to contend with Jake McGee's presence, as well, though managers prefer righty closers twice as much as they should given the population. (Michael Barr)

The Quick Opinion: A power arm with mid-90's stuff and a wicked slider, Ottavino should find himself at, or near, the back of the bullpen should he successfully recover from surgery on his torn UCL. If he's not the closer early on, he's certainly going to be lurking.

Profile: Life is unfair. Consider the case of Adam Ottavino. Always closer-worth in terms of velocity and strikeouts and walks, the reliever with the misfortune of being traded to Colorado never quite grasped the role and ran with it. He got a few saves here or there while the team ran out inferior options in the ninth inning. Then in 2015, when he had the role in hand and was striking the world out with his career-best velocity, poof went the ligament. Last year, he came back and pitched well, and even closed for a while... and then his team went and signed Proven Closer Greg Holland in the offseason. There are still ways for Ottavino to get those precious saves. Holland isn't back to pitching in games yet, so early season saves might still be there for the taking. And if the Rockies fare more like their projections say they will and less like their hopeful front office seems to believe they will, Holland may become available in a trade mid-season, which would lead to some saves for Ottavino late. Either way, the multi-slidered, heady righty in Coors should find his way to double-digit saves and make himself valuable in between with his strong rates and ratios. (Eno Sarris)

The Quick Opinion: Buy Ottavino for the strikeouts and the proximity to saves in Colorado. Then hope the karmic wheel serves up some good luck for once.

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